


sforzando

by pistolgrip



Category: Granblue Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: Character Study, F/F, Vira-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 20:16:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14961462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pistolgrip/pseuds/pistolgrip
Summary: Vira reflects on the winding path her melody has taken over the years.(Takes place after Grand Vira's fates.)





	sforzando

Business on the Grandcypher often leaves her with little time for herself; when one of those rare times comes around, she chooses instead to stay in her room.

She runs her fingers over her violin case and lifts them to find a thin layer of dust. Violin was one of her many outlets back in Albion, when she had only herself and her hope that Katalina would return. She had composed feverishly with the idea of her, pushing herself as far as she could to create pieces that she alone could play in the hopes that one day, Katalina would return to hear them.

Vira finds these pieces now, each note and ornament inked with precise passion, ink smearing where her hands had moved too fast. It’s a world apart from the way she plays these days, not writing anything down; she gets the feeling that some of the melodies she’s come to string together shouldn’t be subject to a cage, instead flowing freely from her fingers. They don’t sound the same from day to day, and a few years ago, she would have been tearing her hair out, scolded herself for being so inconsistent. After all, perfection came from never straying from her path.

But lately, when the melodies takes their time or get quieter, she lets them, hesitantly at first, then more confidently. They have things to tell her now that she lets herself listen, stops trying to bend the strings completely to her will.

Today is one of those days. Taking the violin out the case, she tunes the strings, and then she starts playing.

The tune that comes to mind isn’t anything special; it’s a light piece, meant more as a warmup whenever she had time to play between missions, but there’s something about the way the melody of this song calls to her, the same emptiness that used to haunt her old compositions no longer singing bittersweet. It sounds like the difference between a caged songbird and one that has roamed the skies, free to fly to its heart’s desire.

The sweet song fades, the strings vibrating into the air of her quarters, and not a beat later she hears a knock on the door. “Vira?”

At the sound of Katalina’s voice, her heart flutters—but these days, it’s more of a simmering warmth under her skin than the acute heat that used to wrack her body. “Yes?”

“May I enter?”

“Always,” she says, straightening up in her chair and organizing the sheets on her desk.

Katalina smiles as she enters, fondness in her voice. “I just wanted to say that your playing was lovely. I rather missed it. I was hoping you could play me something.” Katalina’s eyes are drawn to her table, littered with sheet music, and she raises an eyebrow in curiosity. “Did you write these?”

“Yes,” she says, suddenly a bit embarrassed at the mess. Katalina pauses as she reaches out for them; Vira nods, and she picks up a small stack of papers, scanning the music quickly. She doesn’t miss the way that Katalina’s eyes flicker up to the corner of each page, and she knows that Katalina too knows that these were written during her time in Albion.

The smile Katalina has on her face is bittersweet as she takes out one of the sheets and puts it to the front of the pile, taking the time to read through what’s written; she can read sheet music, but Vira hasn’t heard her play in a long time. Putting it back down on the desk, she asks, “If it’s not too much, could you play this one for me?”

Nodding, Vira takes the music and places it on her stand, readying her violin. She takes a deep breath, and for a while, the only sound in the room is their breathing, the creak of her bed when Katalina sits down on it, her own heart beating. _Bastion,_ the title reads, plainly named but perfectly, perfectly composed.

This piece starts off strong and never backs down, a constant fortissimo punctuated with a barrage of accents to represent the never-ending onslaught of distractions against the feelings she sought to protect from contamination. But even as her fingers dance across the strings, something feels wrong, and she frowns, closing her eyes. She knows this piece by heart—every single piece from that time period etched indelibly into her skull—but she starts to deviate, some of the melodies she’d been playing recently whispering into the notes and bringing new life to them.

She had written these pieces to be as technically challenging as possible, both because it was the only test of her talent that she had available, and because they were so precisely and masterfully composed that it would surely have impressed Katalina. But here, she finds her challenge in softening the notes, drawing them out like honey in some places and still striking like lightning in others. The contrast in variation that was once unfamiliar to her now drives her, moving in time with the music, overcome by waves of emotion.

The song ends, almost completely different from what she had written down save for the main phrases, and she sets her violin down, eyes still closed. She hasn’t been that engrossed in playing her music in a very long time, and she thinks briefly that she must look a fool for how carried away she’d gotten—but there’s soft clapping, and she opens her eyes to find Katalina looking at her.

“I much like this version better,” she smiles, and Vira feels heat creep up her neck.

These songs were written for Katalina, about Katalina, and that hasn’t changed at the core of it. But no longer do they need to be so aggressively forward, because Vira knows that she cannot get lost on her own path, and there is no need to fear that she’ll forget what’s important to her. “I as well,” she says quietly, smiling to herself.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> for ari('s friend), who asked to see vira play pieces she's composed for katalina, after the grand fates.  
> thank you again! <3  
> 


End file.
